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The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Brian Shuel obituary
As the British folk revival expanded and developed through the 1960s and 70s, many of the leading performers were photographed by Brian Shuel, who has died aged 90. His early photographs were often taken indoors, in darkened folk clubs held in upstairs rooms in pubs, which required him to push the film to its limits, resulting in grainy but atmospheric images. He combined his artist's eye with often being in the right place at the right time. In December 1962, Brian was at the King & Queen folk club in central London to photograph Martin Carthy, but he also captured one of the floor singers – Bob Dylan on his first visit to Britain. Three days later, he photographed him again at the Singers' Club, with the folk revival founding fathers Ewan MacColl and AL Lloyd in the audience. In those early years, Brian photographed folk performers such as the Watersons, Fairport Convention, Shirley Collins and Pentangle, as well as visiting Americans including Pete Seeger and the Rev Gary Davis. In 1963, at the Edinburgh festival, he photographed the Dubliners when they were still known as the Ronnie Drew Ballad Group. He photographed performers both on and off stage, including those at the first Keele folk festivals in 1965 and 1966. Brian was born in Dublin, to Beatrice (nee Oulton) and Ronald Shuel, who served in the colonial police in Nigeria. Brian was brought up by his mother's two unmarried sisters in County Wicklow. He was educated at the Royal School Armagh in Northern Ireland, and then, from 1954, at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. After completing his graphic design course, he did national service as a cartographer in Singapore; it was there that he bought his first camera. On his return in 1958, Brian married Sally Boswell, whom he had met on his first day at college. His father-in-law, the illustrator and artist James Boswell, was editor of Sainsbury's in-house magazine and Brian became its designer, soon also photographing many aspects of Sainsbury's operations. Through his leftwing activism, James Boswell became a director of Topic Records, Britain's pre-eminent folk record label, which had its origins in the Workers' Music Association. Boswell had illustrated many of their early record sleeves and in 1962, to learn more about the music, he and Brian embarked on a nationwide tour of folk clubs, travelling as far as Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Newcastle and the Spinners' club in Liverpool. Brian's photographs featured on Topic record sleeves and the quality of his work spread his reputation among the still-developing folk scene. He told Nathan Joseph of Transatlantic Records that he did not think much of their sleeve designs and was challenged to prove he could do better. A hundred or so sleeves followed, including the early records of Ralph McTell, Billy Connolly (with Gerry Rafferty as the Humblebums) and Mike and Sally Oldfield as the Sallyangie. Many of the sleeves featured Brian's photographs; he also designed the label's logo, as well as sleeves for American reissues on Transatlantic's Xtra label. Brian's photographs brought him into contact with the English Folk Dance and Song Society, whose librarian, Ruth Noyes, encouraged him to photograph the Bampton Morris Dancers from west Oxfordshire on their traditional Whit Monday tour. The visual attraction of such seasonal customs was obvious, and Brian set about a nationwide pilgrimage to photograph them: the Abbots Bromley Horn Dancers, Padstow's Obby Oss, Ashbourne Shrovetide football – more than 200 in total. In 1972, he was the adviser for a BBC film by Barrie Gavin, The Passing of the Year. In the 80s, Brian revisited many of the customs for a book, The National Trust Guide to Traditional Customs of Britain, which was published to critical acclaim by Webb and Bower in 1985. He also wrote descriptions of the customs: unlike many similar books, Brian had actually visited all the events featured. His approach was to capture the fun, sheer enjoyment and pride of the participants, whose confidence he quickly gained. The full extent of Brian's archive of folk musicians and customs was revealed only when he digitised hundreds of images and uploaded them onto his Collections Picture Library and personal websites. His photographs continue to be admired and eagerly sought after. Brian's assessment that his pictures were 'simple, straightforward, honest and well designed' was typically modest. Although best known for his folk music and customs photographs, Brian also built considerable portfolios of images of bridges and London. His freelance photography work for Sainsbury's continued, and other commissions came from, among others, British Steel, Daily Mirror, the prison system (he photographed in more than 40 prisons), Kodak and the Central Office of Information. From 1985, Brian edited the journal of the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies (Bapla). His wife Sal was Bapla's administrator, as well as a freelance illustrator. Brian is survived by Sal, their two sons, Simon and Ben, and grandson, James. Brian Courtenay Oulton Shuel, photographer and designer, born 4 March 1935; died 12 June 2025
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Climate Change Devastated Their Appalachian Town. These Singers Are Trying to Save Its Music
It's rare that a musician hands over a business card after a gig, but that's exactly what happened last month at Folk Alliance International, an annual gathering of Americana-related musicians and music industry folks, held this year in Montreal. If one night you wandered into one of the hundreds of private showcases in hotel rooms, you may have heard two women and one man singing mountain ballads from hundreds of years ago, including 'The Soldier Traveling from the North' and 'I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again.' After their half-hour set, one of the members, Donna Ray Norton, chilled out in a hallway and offered a card the color of a freshly cut lawn that read: 'Save the Ballads.' On the flip side: 'Appalachian Ballads: Love & Murder a Cappella.' More from Rolling Stone They Saved 54 Horses From the L.A. Fires - But Lost Their Farm Price Gouging in the L.A. Housing Market Is Now Rampant. Can We Stop It? What Blue States Can Do If Trump and Republicans Withhold Disaster Aid Like her two bandmates, Norton is based in North Carolina, in between Asheville and Marshall. The latter town, population 800, was slammed hard last year by Hurricane Helene, leaving behind a trail of deep mud and washed-out buildings. 'It's hard to put into words,' says Norton, a gregarious blond sporting a nose ring. 'We knew a storm was coming, but it was not made to sound like it was going to be a big catastrophic event. Every time something comes in, the mountain breaks it up and it dissipates. But this one didn't dissipate and ravaged everything in her path. Fields of trees turned over. Cars on top of tall trees. It's changed the entire landscape. It's like a moonscape now.' Among the vital parts of Marshall that were devastated were the bars and venues where live music once took place five nights a week, including the bar and restaurant area of the Old Marshall Jail Hotel, a former jail until 2012. Once a month for the last few years, Norton and as many as a dozen more local singers, including the scene's matriarch, Sheila Kay Adams, and her daughter Melanie Rice, would gather there for a 'ballad swap.' They'd sing some of the hundreds and hundreds of four-centuries-old traditional ballads they all grew up with in the area. A few of them, like 'Matty Groves' (or 'Little Mathey Groves'), may be familiar to rock fans thanks to versions by Fairport Convention. The Old Marshall Jail Hotel is currently being rebuilt. But in the meantime, Norton and the other members of the ad-hoc group, who call themselves Nest of Singing Birds, are hoping to spread the word about their work and the effects of climate change on a music community — and they're doing it by taking their tradition-steeped act on the road, including a stop in Montreal. 'Our goal is to talk about the hurricane and continue to share these songs and stories, so we had this idea to travel the ballad swap,' Norton says. 'When something like this happens, in a place with all these traditions like North Carolina, there's a risk of losing something so sacred and special, and it's really scary. There's not a ton of ballad singers in the world.' Like her bandmates, Norton has been singing these songs since they were kids, learning them from parents, grandparents, and other family members. They're so old-school that until recently, Norton had never sung with musical instrument accompaniment, only a cappella. 'We were sort of isolated, and lot of the time it would be the women who would keep the songs going because they'd be working in the fields or cooking supper or working in the garden, and you can't play an instrument when you're doing that,' she says. 'But you can sing a song and entertain people around you by singing about lords and ladies and witches. We were providing our own entertainment.' The fact that Nest of Singing Birds (a phrase coined by British folk-song collector Cecil Sharp when he visited the area over 100 years ago) have fewer places to sing, thanks to Helene, is just one of several pressing issues. When Norton was growing up, the tradition was passed along by family, which is no longer a given. 'A long time ago, your family would have five or ten kids,' Norton says. 'Now, I have only three and my cousin only has one. It's a lineage that's slowly starting to whittle down and not as many families are carrying those traditions.' Along with shows in Nashville, Knoxville, and Raleigh, North Carolina, Nest of Singing Birds are also planning to release an album: Marshall Sessions, recorded right before Hurricane Helene and intended to help get out the word about their music. 'I was down in Marshall digging out the mud after the hurricane, shoveling mud,' Norton says. 'It was really heavy and slippery. I just turned 43, so I'm not as young as I was, and a friend of mine said, 'What the best use of your skill set? Let's do the thing we do best with our songs and stories.' That really resonated with me.' Whether this effort will add up to an O Brother, Where Art Thou? moment — when mainstream culture catches up and becomes enchanted with mysterious mountain songs of the past — has yet to be seen. But Norton takes heart in some of the younger people who started dropping by the Old Marshall before Helene. Since children weren't in the audience, they were able to pull out some of their more risqué material, like that one often MIA verse in 'The Soldier Traveling from the North' ('Well she pulled off her blue silk gown/She laid it on the table/It's he pulled off his uniform suit/And he hopped in bed with the lady'). Norton also has plans to record an album of trad songs with Tyler Ramsey, the North Carolina singer-songwriter and former member of Band of Horses. While the group will always stick with the folk songs from their area, they aren't averse to mixing it up every now and then. 'I'm about to blow your mind,' Norton says with a laugh. She didn't only listen to folk music; a child of the Eighties and Nineties, she says she also loved Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey and classic hip-hop from Snoop Dogg, the Notorious B.I.G., and Run-DMC. Asked to consider a modern cover for a recent project, she selected the Beastie Boys' 'Paul Revere.' 'We wanted to pick something out of left field,' she says. 'We didn't want a Sheryl Crow or country song. And that one works really well. It's the timing and how it rhymes.' That moment of frivolity aside, everyone involved in Nest of Singing Birds knows how fragile their music eco-system is now. The North Carolina Music Council has made Nest of Singing Birds the official ambassadors for the state's newly established North Carolina Music Office. Asked if she thought climate change would impact the state's musical history, Catherine Swain, of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, says, 'No, I didn't. But then L.A. happened and it made me think we need to be more vigilant about preserving our cultural heritage. We just can't take things for granted.' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Welsh folk band Calan to perform at Pembrokeshire cathedral
St Davids Cathedral is set to host one of Calan's last performances. The Welsh folk group, known for its unique blend of traditional and modern sounds, will perform at the cathedral on St David's Day. The concert begins at 7.30pm, with doors opening at 6.30pm. MamGu's Café in the Refectory will sell both alcoholic and non-alcoholic refreshments from 6.30pm. Tickets can be bought on the cathedral's website or by calling 01437 722002 Tuesday to Friday. Calan, a five-member Welsh band formed in Sweden, includes Bethan Rhiannon on accordion, vocals, and clog dancing; Patrick Rimes on fiddle and Welsh bagpipes; Angharad Jenkins on fiddle; Sam Humphreys on guitar; and Shelley Musker-Turner on harp. The band has received several awards, including the International Band Trophy at the Inter-Celtic Festival in Lorient, France, and Best Band at the Wales Folk Awards in 2019. Calan has performed for a range of audiences, from 40 people at a garden fete to 26,000 at Fairport Convention's Cropredy Festival in Oxfordshire. They also had a televised performance at the Royal Albert Hall alongside Sir Bryn Terfel and Sting. The concert will be one of Calan's final three performances as a group.
National Geographic
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- National Geographic
'Faerie smut' is having a moment — just like it did in 1500
From the Renaissance to ACOTAR: Tam Lin's many interpretations As with many stories that emerge out of oral tradition, it's impossible to trace Tam Lin's roots to its source. The first mention likely appears in the 16th century Complaynt of Scotland, a Scottish political text that includes a long tangent about the songs and stories shared between shepherds. The first full, published versions began appearing in print in the late 1700s, a moment of intense interest in 'antiquarian' things, when educated gentlemen dedicated their ample leisure time to collecting curiosities and tales, gathering up endangered bits of history against the advance of modernity and theorizing about their origins and what that might say about the national character of the places that produced them. Strange songs about fairies fit the bill perfectly, including Tam Lin. There's a version in David Herd's The ancient and modern Scots songs, heroic ballads, etc, published in 1769; and another that appears in the Scots Musical Museum of 1771, commonly attributed to the poet Robert Burns. Tam Lin also appears in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, the 1802 collection that kickstarted the career of Sir Walter Scott, who claimed that his version is a blend of available printed versions and "several recitals from tradition.' Like Maas, these men took a liberal amount of artistic license with their source material. The most important place the ballad appeared is the work of an American: Francis James Child's multi-volume opus The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, published between 1882 and 1898. Child, an English professor at Harvard, set out to compile the most authentic traditional ballads, looking for what he believed to be true folk traditions. He combed thousands of options, and eventually chose 305, including ballad number 39: Tam Lin. Child's work was influential, creating an authoritative Bible of folk ballads and making Tam Lin widely available. The ballad was picked up by 20th century folk music revivalists, like singers Anne Briggs and Ewan MacColl, who produced stark, stripped-down versions. The British folk rock group Fairport Convention took it up-tempo and added electric guitars. The tale even made its way into the British movie genre of folk horror, in a lurid 1970 adaptation featuring Roddy McDowell, Ian McShane, and Ava Gardner as an aging, manipulative Faerie Queen. Tam Lin's most enduring interpretation, and the one ACOTAR draws from, is that of a woman who defies social convention and triumphs. That's reflected in writers that took Tam Lin as inspiration in the second half of the 20th century, as women were reevaluating traditional stories on their own terms in the wake of the feminist movement. Janet gained a reputation as a rare woman character from traditional stories who has an absolutely blazing sense of her own agency. Writer Susan Cooper turned it into a picture book, as did Jane Yolen, who made explicit what appealed to her about the tale: 'I have always loved the Scottish border ballad Tam Lin, first mentioned in a ballad book of 1549. It's one of the only ones (maybe THE only one) in which the woman does the rescuing.' Pamela Din moved the action to a fictional Midwestern liberal arts college for her 1991 novel Tam Lin. Dianne Wynne Jones blended Tam Lin with another ballad to create her 1984 novel Fire and Hemlock, about a young woman struggling against enchanted memory loss. These books play with the paths available to young women in this world, using the fairies and the forces of enchantment to place obstacles in those paths. None of them were bestsellers like ACOTAR, but they were influential forerunners of today's flourishing Romantasy books.
